Uryū

The Uryū River rises in the Teshio mountains and flows south through forested valleys before joining the Ishikari. One explanation derives its name from an Ainu word meaning “river of cormorants”. The river belongs to a larger inland world of Ainu settlements along the Ishikari and its tributaries, whose people hunted, fished and gathered plants as well as trading over considerable distances. Its course links the mountain interior with the broad Ishikari plain.